Jerome Sinclair
Jerome Terence Sinclair (born 20 September 1996) is an English footballer who played for Liverpool, primarily based with the Academy, as a striker from 2011 to 2016. Liverpool career Liverpool signed Sinclair as a 14-year-old from the West Bromwich Albion youth academy in the summer of 2011. A very highly-rated youngster- it has been suggested that the Liverpool coaching staff consider his potential to be at a similar level to that of Raheem Sterling. He spent most of the 2011-12 season with the Under 16s before coach Mike Marsh gave him a run of four games with the Under 18s at the end of the season. He impressed greatly in those games, though he failed to find the back of the net. On 14 July 2012 however, Sinclair came off the bench to score a hat trick against Exeter in an Under 18s pre-season friendly. In all, Sinclair netted eight goals in the six Under 18s pre-season friendly games in the run up to the 2012-13 Academy Under 18s season. He went on to score his first competitive goals for the Under 18s on 25 August 2012, hitting a brace in a 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace. His form earned him a call-up into Rodolfo Borrell's NextGen Series side for the away match with defending champions Inter Milan on 19 September 2012. Sinclair started the match and impressed throughout, winning a penalty that Krisztian Adorjan converted and going close himself on more than one occasion. His fine form brought him to the attention of first team coach Brendan Rodgers. He called Sinclair up to the first team for the League Cup third round tie away to West Brom on 26 September 2012. He came off the bench in the 81st minute in place of Samed Yesil to break Jack Robinson's record as Liverpool's youngest ever player- at 16 years and 6 days old. He was handed shirt number 48 for the occasion. Sinclair finished his season as the U18's top scorer- netting 11 goals in 22 games and also scored one goal in the NextGen Series, in which he made six appearances. In the 2013-14 season, Sinclair's goalscoring improved further as, despite struggling with injuries, he netted 14 goals in 18 appearances. He was the U18s top league goalscorer, and joint-top overall with Harry Wilson when FA Youth Cup games are considered. He also made two appearances for the U21s during their season. On 10 May 2015, Sinclair made his first Premier League appearance, coming on as a substitute in a 1-1 draw at Chelsea. He also made a cameo appearance in the next game, a 3-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace, in Steven Gerrard's final game at Anfield. This was Sinclair's first senior Anfield appearance. On 8 January 2016, Sinclair made his first Liverpool start, playing 70 minutes in a 2-2 draw at Exeter. 13 minutes in, Sinclair equalised with his first Liverpool goal, with a cool finish from the centre of the box. However, he made just one further appearance that season. It was later confirmed that Sinclair had reached an agreement to sign for Watford upon the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2016. Stats External links * *Jerome Sinclair's profile on liverpoolfc.com * Category:Former Players Category:Forwards